Sunday, January 16, 2011

Watercolors

One of the four people I dedicated my book, The Fowlerville Chronicles, to was Nellie Glenn. For those of you that may have never heard her name, she was a historian for the village in the mid-1900s, passing away in 1975 at the age of 90. A huge amount of the materials, documents, remembrances, and memoriabilia from various celebrations, to be found in the Fowlerville Historical Collection is due in a major part to Nellie Glenn.

Until recently, I didn't realize she was also an artist. I'm sure she wouldn't mind, posthumously, if I show some of her work that can be found in the Fowlerville Library. Head there, ask directions to where the computers are, and then look on the walls. These are some wonderful depictions of some of the old, and now non-existent, buildings.

The first one shown is of the Spencer House, which was located at the northeast corner of North Second Street and East Grand River. It was torn down around 1915. The next one was labeled the Lutheran Church. A brick structure now houses that congregation. Next, this drawing is of two of the schoolhouses that used to be located at about where the Senior Citizen building now stands. The white, wooden schoolhouse burned down in 1921, and the red, brick schoolhouse was torn down in 1957. The nickname for the following picture of the Reason House was "Independence Hall." It was located at the southwest corner of South Grand and West Grand River Avenue. It burned down in 1878 and by 1880, the Commercial Hotel, a brick structure, stood in its place. The last picture shows what the northeast quadrant would have looked like along about 1874. These wooden structures burned in a huge conflagration in 1891. By the end of that year, over 13 new brick buildings were being constructed in the downtown area. So now, with this very slight taste of some of Fowlerville's history, you might consider checking out all of the other posts on this website . . . or purchasing a copy of my book, The Fowlerville Chronicles.

Happy reading!

1 comment:

Ruth said...

Shame on me for not knowing you had published this book Marion! This is a great service to Fowlerville. We have a book about the town where my family originated in South Carolina, and we are always going to it and reminding ourselves of our history. So cool!

Thank you for your kind visit to synch today on my fifth anniversary. It's been so nice getting to know you over these years, though I haven't talked with you in a while. I just went for a walk in the meadow, and it's cold today! Stay cozy.